Swap Shop is a place to exchange ideas for activities in Sunday school; share your success stories in teaching the Bible to children; and provide ways to foster a love for the Bible.

Swap Shop

• Anagram for Christmas Exercise
• Christmas Gift Ideas

Anagram for Christmas

Amy Sparkman created this exercise for her three sons.

Gifts and Christmas seem to go hand-in-hand.  Faces glow as wish lists are swapped among friends.  For the adults, it can be a challenge to find ways to lift those ever-lengthening lists out of the “I hope I get…” mentality to a more giving spirit.  One activity that has helped our family do this is writing anagrams and then free-flowing poems.

What you need is paper, writing implements, and a willing heart!  What you’ll get is a new perspective—a new way to think about what you have to give and a few special things to add to your “list.”

Along the left-hand margin of a clean sheet of paper (lined or unlined), write in capital letters, with space between each letter, the following words:

Using each letter as the first letter of a word, think of individual words
or phrases that express what "gift-giving" means to you.  As you write down
your ideas, you might find a way to create a pattern of similar phrases or
words ending with the same suffix, or a rhyming pattern.  This will take a
bit of time and might need to be finished for SS homework or the next dinner
together.  A group goal might be made at the outset:  to think about the
true meaning of "gifts" and "giving" rather than their commercialized
meanings. 

When everyone has written an individual anagram, have a sharing time that's free from criticism and open to listening to what each one is saying about this timeless activity:  gift-giving.

Often, the anagram leads to another poetic form as the writer lifts a line
or more from the anagram -- connecting or expanding or rhyming the ideas in
a way that paints a richer picture than the limits of the anagram will
allow.  Have fun with this activity -- it will be a gift to each writer!

Younger children might enjoy doing this activity as a group, with each child
working on one letter in the word.

Here is an example using the word “GRATEFUL:”

Grab each moment
Rise and shine
Activate goodness
Touch a heart
Exude joy
Follow willingly
Utter words of love
Linger in the essence of being GRATEFUL.